Your Triumph and the Law.

If I took the body off my Vitesse and replaced it with a one off build, would I still be able to retain the Reg no and would the newly bodied car be affected by any other tests other than the MOT?

I have the relevant V5, engine and comm plate.

All help greatly appreciated, I know nothing about this and would welcome all help and hints no matter what.

Cheers

I don't know a huge amount about it, I suggest you find the appropriate booklet or webpage from the VOSA that gives details about notifiable alterations.

As far as I know, if you were making significant changes to bodywork, you'd have to send off a form with details of the changes and if they deem it necessary from significant changes in structure/strength/weight/shape etc you would have to have a check/test done on the vehicle. I've no idea what that entails, but unless you're making major changes to the chassis and the rest of the vehicle, I don't think you'd have to have an SVA and get it re-registered.

As far as the notifiable alterations go, I think even things such as changes to the braking such as adding servo's or uprating a Spitfire to GT6 brakes/suspension would have to be notified, but quite whether people do or not, I've no idea.

Mark & Adrian

This is something that 'Specials' owners do all the time and is not very complicated. According to the new V5 there is no space to change the body shape, just other features.

I suggest you contact Trevor Collet, Specials Register Secretary, he could probably tell you exactly what you need to know, or ring DVLA on 0870 240 0010.

Regards
Mike

with due respect to "officiers of the leiu" one would need to carefully 'manage' one's way through this. Get too radical and you are into SVA territory. It is helpful that you have already got a reg no, a chassis/vin number and a mot...

As onerous as we consider SVA, we are very fortunate when it comes to the UK position on home built vehicles. The continentals are entirely prevented from doing what we consider is our right, to build at home and drive on the road.

mind you that is exactly our situation when it comes to home built aircraft vs. the North America situation about home build planes

bin

All,
Colin suggested KitCar magazine - I notice that the February issue is an 'SVA registration' special.

John

Home built aircraft? Oh my Gawd... having seen the hash some people can make of a car be thankful there are some limits to what's going overhead...
Reminds me of an article in my local paper three years ago when a light aircraft crashed near Tandragee because it ran out of fuel... the pilot stated that he was glad there was no fuel as it didn't go on fire when it crashed. Personally I reckon if there had been fuel, it would never have come down in the first place...

This is an almost unique-to-Triumph scenario; as we have one of the few mass-produced separate chassis cars they seem to lend themselves to being kitted and rebodied more than any other such vehicle available cheaply today. The Herald and Vitesse are perfect examples - how many other cars can be reshelled, or even half shelled, and not be classed as a Q-plate car? It does raise the question: how much of a Herald or Vitesse can be replaced before it is another vehicle? I know of cars with replacement chassis, some with replacement rear tubs or bulkheads, and since the bulkhead is the only part to wear an identification number, has it any greater significance than any other major component? Can all else be 'hung' on the bulkhead and so keep the original identity? I know the DVLA operates on a points system for restored cars depending on how much of the original vehicle has been retained, but in the case of a complete replacement body this could cause problems for reregistration.
We all know that sometimes it's better to say nothing at all and this may work for a like-for-like replacement eg rebuilt tub; to a lesser extent we can get away with a different style rear tub replacement ie saloon to convertible but a complete replacement body which substantially alters the look and nature of the car will be scrutinised. It's not only the DVLA but also your Insurers who will need to know the finer points and here we enter the whole realm of design safety, which is an entirely different kettle of fish based these days not only on what harm you can do to yourself or another vehicle in a collision, but also what happens if you hit a pedestrian who will then sue bigstyle. Sometimes it's better to buy a commercially available body where the company has completed all the research and obtained the necessary clearances. You can also sue them if something does go pearshaped...

I get the general impression that i may be entering a minefield here.I thought,maybe wrongly,that if i had the documentation and ,as Mike says,only change the shell,which is all i'm doing,then it would be ok............maybe not,better go and have a few pints to consider it

......................thanks all.

The problem is now-a-days if it doesn't look like a Vitesse, it ain't a Vitesse any more, unlike the good-old-days when it would have been a rebodied Vitesse.

That is why the Moss owners (some of which are just rebodied heralds and spitfires) can't use their cars anymore because the V5's say they are Heralds and Spitfires but they don't look like them.

They then have to go through the SVA test to put them back on the road, and need things all the modern things that Triumphs were never built for. So they give up.

this might be a good starting point

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/do...

Good luck with the protective steering and the external projections, at least you don't appear to have to do the front and side impact tests!

And it costs &163;150 plus the cost of an MOT!!!

Colin

Basically if your V5 says that your car is a Triumph Vitesse or Triumph Herald then the car has to be one of these cars, It has to describe the vehicle it refers to accurately.

All home build cars are usualy substantially different to the original car and If yours was registered with the DVLA as a Triumph then the only way you can get it descibed as a Moss is the make the changes on the V5 and wait for them to tell you that you will need to go and get an SVA

The best you will get is a Q plate

While I've not yet built a kit car or special myself, I have studied most of the DVLA literature on the subject and have previously been quite involved with the kit car fraternity. As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong), a car which retains it's original bodyshell or chassis in "unmodifed" form, and whilst scoring adequate points on the rating system (5 I think) should retain it's original identity. I'm uncertain about the current SVA requirement as I know this has been an evolving process, but the only sticking point I can see on the identity issue is what constitutes "unmodified" in DVLA's terms.
Cheers,
Bill.

Adrian

Be very very careful. Or you will end up with bucket loads of problems.

Talk to no-one at the DVLA, or your LVLO until you know what to say as you are getting into SVA territory here, that is BIG trouble.

Go read Kit Car magazines at your local WH Smiths etc. to get some clues.

A local member let his local MOT bay put the Body number on his MOT instead of the commission number (the plate was missing, but he didn't need one as the car was a '68), car was off the road for 6 months while he sorted out the trouble he had got in.

Lots of my fellow Moss owners can not now put their cars on the road because of SVA, I was lucky, my V5 says it is a Moss. It is basically a rebodied GT6.

Just remember, tell no-one what you have done until you are sure you know what you are doing!

Colin

Colin,the reason for my question is pictured below..................how nice is that?

The car i mean.

Section : Bodywork Modifications

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